# rails-api/rails-api

Rails for API only applications

Repository: https://github.com/rails-api/rails-api
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/rails-api
Language: Ruby
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2021-05-02T19:31:04+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5282, "days_push": 1949, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 5129, forks 271 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:10.992308+00:00)

## What it is
Rails::API is a slimmed-down subset of Rails tailored for building API-only applications that serve JSON without the full middleware stack or view layer. It has been merged into Rails core as the --api mode, so this gem is now largely historical.

## Use cases
- build a json api backend with rails
- serve json to a single-page app
- create an api-only rails application
- strip rails middleware for faster api responses
- backend for mobile app consuming json

## When to choose
- you are on an old Rails 4.x codebase that predates the built-in --api mode
- you want a lightweight Rails stack for JSON-only endpoints

## When to avoid
- you use Rails 5 or newer, which includes API mode natively
- you need server-rendered HTML views
- you expect active maintenance or new releases

## Facets
- artifact type: framework
- maturity: maintenance
- function: web-framework, api-framework, middleware, routing
- domain: web-development, backend, apis
- platform: ruby
- tags: rails, json-api, api-only, ruby-on-rails, gem, web-server

## Member repositories
- rails-api/rails-api (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:10.992308+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T18:02:03.136741+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/rails-api/rails-api (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:10.992308+00:00, sha d0d26caee732)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.